A new retrospective analysis of pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), published in Blood, will be presented at the 2021 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition. While there is a phase 3 randomized controlled trial supporting the use of brentuximab vedotin (BV) in adults with R/R HL after receiving autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), data on post-ASCT BV consolidation therapy for patients under 21 with R/R HL are limited. The researchers sought to gather these data.
Data were gathered from 14 different academic centers across North America, allowing for the inclusion of 52 eligible patients. The researchers analyzed the cohort based on disease risk factors, treatment history, response to therapy, and BV-related toxicity. The primary endpoint was 3-year event-free survival (EFS). The parameters for events were relapse, progression of the disease, or death from any cause.
The results of the analysis allowed the researchers to identify the most frequent adverse events for the cohort. It was found that the most common reason for stopping BV cycles post-ASCT was due to patients experiencing adverse effects. In the end, the findings showed a 3-year EFS of 90% for patients with 2 or more risk factors and 100% for patients with 0-1 risk factors. No deaths have occurred.
When using post-ASCT BV consolidation with pediatric patients being treated for R/R HL, this retrospective analysis demonstrated that there are promising outcomes with safety and tolerability, as well as EFS. A call to action is made to study the combination of salvage therapy, sequential high-dose chemotherapy/ASCT, and BV consolidation in younger patients with R/R HL in a prospective trial to further understand the outcomes from this course of therapy for this population [1].
Source:
[1] Forlenza, C. J., Rosenzweig, J., Mauguen, A., Buhtoiarov, I., Cuglievan, B., Dave, H., Deyell, R. J., Flerlage, J., Franklin, A., Krajewski, J., Leger, K. J., Marks, L., Norris, R., Pacheco, M., Willen, F., Yan, A. P., Harker-Murray, P., & Roth, L. G. (2021). Brentuximab vedotin as consolidation therapy following autologous stem cell transplantation in children and adolescents with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma: a multi-center retrospective analysis. Blood, 138(Supplement 1), 2465. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2021-151808